It’s easy to recognize a team playing with desperation.We often see desperation from teams with their backs against the wall, with no other choice but to eat or be eaten. If a team plays desperate in college basketball it usually means bodies are flying across the floor for loose balls, defenders a...

At Illinois, it’s reasonable to expect the men’s basketball team to make the NCAA tournament.Barring extreme circumstances and an occasional rebuilding season, that expectation was solidified and instilled into multiple generations of Illini hoops fans over the course of nearly three decades. From ...

Tweet: Even in a down year for both teams, Braggin’ Rights remain sacred for Illini/MizzouWhen a season goes as it has so far for Illinois basketball, it can become harder to find games on the schedule with true importance and meaning.At 7-5, the Illini have suffered from some self-inflicted pain t...

Lou Henson The Coach came before my time.If you’re reading this as a current member of the Orange Krush, then Lou Henson The Coach was probably before your time, too. Lou coached his last game at Illinois in 1996, when I was two years old. Although I never got to witness his teams play firsthand, it ...

Illinois head coach John Groce has always been coy with updates on his injured players. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, then, when Groce announced a few hours before tipping off against UAB in the Emerald Coast Classic that junior guards Jaylon Tate and Kendrick Nunn would return to the lineup fr...

The numbers don’t lie.Illinois basketball has suffered from extremely poor starts in five games so far this year on its way to a 2-3 record. The Illini have trailed at halftime in each game and have fallen behind by double digits against every opponent except Providence. They’ve been outscored 197-156 ...

Illinois was teetering on the brink of calamity Monday at Prairie Capital Convention Center.Chicago State, listed as one of the worst of 351 Division I basketball teams by Ken Pomeroy’s ranking system and picked to finish last in the Western Athletic Conference, led Illinois 79-77 with 40 seconds left ...

Tweet: A loss to Chattanooga Saturday night cements the Illini’s worst start to a season since 1965, writes @aroux94The looks on their faces said it all.As Illinois basketball players trudged to the Prairie Capital Convention Center locker room following a 81-77 loss to Chattanooga Saturday night, t...

It seemed like a good idea in theory.Illinois basketball has generally played weak opponents in early season games during John Groce’s tenure, but the 2015-16 schedule took the toughness up a notch. The Illini are the only team in the country to have faced three straight teams coming off NCAA tourname...

Editor’s note: The Daily Illini sports desk sits down each week and decides which Illinois athlete or coach is our Illini of the week. Athletes and coaches are evaluated by individual performance and contribution to team success.As he sat slumped in his chair during Friday’s postgame press conference, Mike ...

You’re going to hear Kris Dunn's name a lot in the hours leading up to Illinois’ game at Providence Wednesday night.You're going to hear Kris Dunn's name in between the squeak of sneakers as the Illini take on the Friars.If you’re even a somewhat attentive basketball fan, you’re going to hear...

Being a student-athlete is a tricky thing. It’s an emotional thing, it’s a mental thing, and it’s a physical thing.And as surprising as this may sound, I haven't found many outside of college sports that are able to do justice to just how amazing an experience it is.But balancing all of these feeli...